


kiss me when you're gone

by lawltam



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Garrison trio, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, M/M, Self-Indulgent, hella self-indulgent, implied Shiro clone, they kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 12:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12507764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lawltam/pseuds/lawltam
Summary: He still can’t wrap his mind around it. Shiro and Allura had been planning this infiltration for ages now, and along with Pidge’s stolen information, it should’ve gone perfectly fine. Yet here there were, the team separated, the castle possibly invaded and the chance that this could very well be team Voltron’s last mission.Keith was suddenly very much aware of the lips against his and his mind snapped back to reality.





	kiss me when you're gone

Soft lips caught a stray muffled gasp, a single sound that tore through the fragile situation. To be fair, Keith wasn’t quite expecting the kiss, nor was he expecting this unlikely situation. He still can’t wrap his mind around it. Shiro and Allura had been planning this infiltration for ages now, and along with Pidge’s stolen information, it should’ve gone perfectly fine. Yet here there were, the team separated, the castle possibly invaded and the chance that this could very well be team Voltron’s last mission.

Keith was suddenly very much aware of the lips against his and his mind snapped back to reality. 

Suddenly, in this truly life-or-death situation, everything ironically felt perfect. He didn’t hear the pounding of Galra feet against the metal floors of this ship, or Shiro’s faded voice yelling orders from his com. He didn’t see the greys, silvers and purples of the spacecraft, or Lance’s blue helmet. He didn’t feel the burning ache in his muscles. He only felt Lance’s lips on his, marking them like a permanent stain.

It was with a bitter awareness that he realized this was a mission, and that Keith certainly didn’t have the time to be kissing Lance at this moment (maybe later). With an impatient sigh, he pulled away and flicked Lance’s forehead. “We shouldn’t be doing this right now, we’re kinda in the middle of something.” 

Lance grinned and his bayard - Keith’s old one, he remembers with a pinch in his heart - turns into a sniper rifle. “You’re right. Sequence forty-three?” 

Keith’s mind flashes to a vague memory of the two of them practicing against the Guardian back at the castle, back to back. His swordsmanship and Lance’s accuracy worked hand in hand with each other. They were two bodies of water, smooth and fluid, taking the shape of the other. 

It might work. For once, Keith was relatively certain that they were going to survive. 

“ _You boys still alive?_ ” Keith registered Shiro’s voice of his head, though the footsteps of the Galra soldiers were becoming alarmingly loud. He murmured a noise to indicate that yes, he was indeed still kicking. 

“ _Good. We’ve infiltrated the main network, the entire system should be at our fingertips now. Head back to the castle safely._ ” 

“Aye, aye, cap’in.” Lance shared a smirk with Keith and he heard a loud _whizz_ skim past his ear, hitting a Galra that rounded the corner right in the chest. Keith activated his bayard and he had to fight back the urge to groan; he still wasn’t accustomed to the black sword. He truly misses Red. 

“I’ve got your back, Pretty Boy.” Keith almost jumped at the way Lance rasped into his ear, heavy breathing caused by the fight surrounding them. They were, of course, on the winning side, but that certainly didn’t mean that they had any less of a reason to be cautious. Keith activated his shield and deflected a laser that would’ve sliced his head clean off. Maybe Lance doesn’t have him covered as well as he thinks. 

“Yeah, well who’s got – _Lance!_ ”

Maybe Keith doesn’t have him as covered as well as he thinks.

* * *

Keith can’t quite remember what happened after Lance fell to the ground, except for blurred visions of him slashing Galra robots in a state of fury. Anger swelled over all his senses, blocking out the burn in his muscles, the frantic voices of the other paladins vibrating in his ears. A short tantrum stretched on for minutes until only useless chunks of metal resembling limbs littered the cold ground of the now deserted ship. 

“ _K-Keith, the coast is clear, man._ ”

“ _Keith, what the hell happened?_ ”

“ _Is Lance alright? Hello? Keith?!_ ”

He’s starting to get sick of the voices calling out his name. Keith dropped to his knees, inspecting Lance. He checked for a pulse frantically and almost sobbed when he found one, albeit very faint. Lance needed to get into a healing pod and he needs to get into one very quickly. “Hunk, can you come to our location? I need you to carry Lance to the castle.” 

“ _Uh, y-yeah. Got it._ ”

Keith’s attention wavered back to Lance, eyes closed and slow and shallow breathing. He looked at him with such undivided and strong focus, he didn’t even realize the shaking of his own hands. 

“C’mon Lance. You can’t just do this. Wake up, man.” Keith had to will the trembling of his voice to stop, but over the loud thrum of panic in his ears, he can’t tell if he succeeded or not. 

“For me.”

* * *

Lance has been in the healing pod for at least two weeks now, and with him absent, suddenly all the paladins realize how quiet it is. He was the one that sparked conversations at the table. The one to pass quirky comments in the hallway. Without him, the castle seemed so _lifeless_. 

“Paladins, we’ve received a distress signal - oh my,” Coran gasped quietly as his eyes paced back and forth. 

“What is it?” Shiro, like the leader he is, was already alert, standing to his feet and approaching the older Altean. 

“This is a rather serious mission. It would certainly be a problem if we don’t form Voltron.” 

“Uh, we _can’t_? Lance is still in the pod.” Pidge muttered from her little desk-area. Her entire torso was spread over her table, small hands hanging dramatically from the sides. She’s been in a slump since the sharpshooter was ironically shot himself. “He’s the right hand of the damn thing.” 

“Language.”

“You’re right. Sorry. The right hand of the _fucking_ thing.” She managed a dry chuckle and her heart pinched when she realized Lance would’ve been laughing to tears. She misses him. 

“So what do we do? We can’t just ignore the distress signal, and Coran said it’s serious!” Hunk exclaimed from his side of the room. Like Pidge, Lance’s absence has affected Hunk, if not make him the most disturbed. He’s been a tad more stressed and tensed up. Lance was a method to take his mind off of things, mainly the fact that they were supposed to save the world. 

“We’re just going to have to go. There’s nothing we can do about it. If by chance, Lance gets out in the meantime, we could form Voltron.” Shiro says dismissively and the tone of his voice leaves no room for any discussion. Keith shares an uneasy look with Pidge as the former Black paladin exits the room. Lately, Shiro’s been much more assertive than usual. Perhaps it was just a result from being separated from the rest of Voltron for such a long time, but that excuse has been told for too long to be true at this point. Something was fishy, and Keith would very much like to solve it, but too much of his headspace was taken by Lance. 

Allura sighed. “Well then, shall we?”

* * *

Fuck.

This was a very serious mission, and Coran was very right saying that Voltron would be needed. 

Keith slammed against the back of his seat and once again, he cursed the lack of seatbelts in the lions. There was a brief moment of stillness before another laser hit the side of Black and she made a growl of pain. Fuck. 

“ _Coran, is Lance out yet? We really need Red right now!_ ” Hunk’s voice sounded distorted over the ringing of Keith’s ears, but to be fair, all of his senses were thrown over the edge.

“ _No, he’s yet to come out._ ” Even Coran sounded stressed, which by regular standards, meant that this current situation was very, very serious. 

“ _We can’t take any of this for much longer, we need to fall back!_ ” 

“ _NO! We won’t leave these people behind. You got that, paladins?_ ” Shiro’s sudden outburst shocked them all and his throaty roar left them frozen in place. That wasn’t like him; he was basically sending them on a suicide mission. Leaving them here meant barely any chances for survival. Which means no paladins of Voltron. 

Keith had to think; would he risk it? Stay here and save an entire population or leave to save his - as well as all the other paladins’ - skin. He grit his teeth. There really wasn’t a way out of this without harming either parties. 

“Pidge, Hunk and Allura, land on Xandelphon and get the citizens into escape pods.” 

“ _Keith, what about you?_ ” Allura’s worried tone made him hesitate, but he had his mind set to this already. For both the sake of the people living on the planets, but for the rest of Voltron as well. 

“I’ll keep you guys safe. Just go!” Keith veered his lion around, facing the Galra ships. The concerned yells of his teammates were starting to annoy him, so he shut off his com and threw his helmet to the side. No turning back now. 

Just as he was about to amp up the speed, a flash of red passed his visions accompanied by the destruction of a dozen ships. _The Red Lion._ Keith scrambled for his helmet and shoved it onto his head, not really caring that it hurt. 

“Lance!” 

“ _What the heck is going on here, man? Where are the others? Why were you alone?_ ” Keith couldn’t even describe the feelings he felt when he heard Lance’s voice again. His absence for so many weeks felt like it suddenly disappeared and he could breathe easily, finally. 

“It doesn’t matter, we’re forming Voltron!”

* * *

They saved the planet. They did it. 

Entering the main lobby of the castle with grins and pats on the back, the five paladins of Voltron were pretty satisfied with what they just accomplished, yet Shiro was nowhere to be found. 

“Lance, you made it just on time! We would’ve gotten blasted if it weren’t for you.” Hunk playfully shoved the former blue paladin, in which he retaliated with a slightly stronger shove. It went back and forth for a while before Lance lost his balance and toppled to the floor. 

“Yeah, well, laser to the chest and all. Takes some time. Did you guys manage well without me?” He didn’t even bother getting back up on his feet and Keith wondered why he harboured feelings for him - feelings he has yet to deal with. He watched Pidge fall onto Lance.

“Of course, you big dummy. Next time, try not to get lasered.” She rolled his eyes and slid off of Lance, leaving him fighting for breath. 

“Yeah, yeah,” He waves his hands dismissively and stood up, patting down his pants. He then looked straight into Keith’s eyes, and for a moment, Keith forgot how to breathe.

“What about you? Miss me?” Lance raised a brow, the way he does when he’s being cocky. The last time he made this face, it was when he and Keith had a ‘who-could-stay-underwater-longest’ competition and Lance almost drowned. He won though, and Keith had to go through a not-so humiliating day as ‘He Who Cannot Hold His Breath Very Long’.

“Why would I?” Keith took a step closer, crossing his arms over his chest. This rivalry again. He had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it felt like they were never going to be friends, much less anything past that. The competitiveness that Lance showed from day one had stuck around, and it would constantly bloom at any given moment. It was risky. Lance probably just thought of him as his rival and teammate. Nothing more, right? Isn’t that what Keith signed up for when he retaliated every time? Surely not for these unnecessary butterflies lingering around his stomach. 

Yet on the other hand, it was just _so much fun_ getting Lance all riled up, how could Keith say no?

“Well, for starters,” Lance’s smugness was surpassing his average smugness level. It was almost unbearable. “I’m sure you’ve been thinking about that kiss.”

Keith ignored the way all members in the room, which included Hunk, Pidge, Coran and Allura, to lean in just a bit more to catch snippets of their conversation. He tensed, suddenly nervous will all the eyes on him and that cursed former blue paladin. 

“W-well, yeah –”

“Really?” Keith was confused by Lance’s shock. Of course he’d be thinking about that stupid kids, who wouldn’t? “Damn, I really made an impression on you, huh?” 

“Uh –“

“Well, if you really want to, we can do it again sometime.” Keith hated the way Lance said that so casually. It’s like he wasn’t aware of how he was absolutely burning red, or how Keith’s heart was beating so fast, he thought it would explode. 

“I’d _love_ to see you get shot again.” Lance’s face dropped and suddenly that cute smirk and slight eyebrow raise disappeared. And so the casual teasing-flirting was back, man did Keith miss it. 

He grinned. “Just kidding. We can make out all you want later.” The way Lance literally broke down in stammers and red cheeks was worth the embarrassment of saying that line.

**Author's Note:**

> the ending is hella rushed, sorry about that :( 
> 
> please don’t forget to leave a kudos and a comment though!


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